I’m taking a quick break from Angel Strike to show another view of the Battle of Serenity.\u00a0 This story takes place in the middle of the battle, while Jack and his Cowboys are fighting on land and in space.\u00a0 It was written as introductory fiction for the Forge of Wars war game I recently released and I’m rather proud of it.\u00a0 And though the Cowboys never appear in it, you can see their effect if you read carefully.\u00a0 Just as you can see these men and women in Angel Strike if you read carefully.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 So here it is…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Defeat tasted bitter in Private Roger Young\u2019s mouth.\u00a0 Leaden arms barely held onto his weapon and bonds of iron anchored his feet to the ground.\u00a0 The struggle to breathe nearly crushed him as he fought the urge to hyperventilate with panic. \u00a0His fingers tingled with the nervous energy of a man ready to charge into battle.\u00a0 But the terror that he might be next spurred him to run for his life like so many others already had.<\/p>\n
Young closed his eyes and leaned against the makeshift wall of rubble that had once been the road he\u2019d driven every day to work.\u00a0 The crumbling pavement filled most of the space between the cliffs that rose up high on either side.\u00a0 It made an impressive makeshift barricade against the small arms the Chinese infantry had.\u00a0 But holes filled it where Chinese tank rounds had blown clean through.\u00a0 Other parts of the wall had simply collapsed and spilled out to either side from the constant soul-crushing drumming of artillery.<\/p>\n
Young\u2019s eyes opened with a wondering gleam.\u00a0 There was silence.\u00a0 He tried to remember when he\u2019d last heard the whistle and boom of those hated shells but he couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 It was quiet.\u00a0 Too quiet.\u00a0 Frak.<\/p>\n
He shut his eyes again and finally succumbed to the urge to hyperventilate.\u00a0 He breathed in and out again and again, nearly gasping with the need to suck in one last mouthful of precious air.\u00a0 And when he finally felt like his lungs would burst from the pressure, he muscled his massive railgun over the makeshift wall with body builder muscles and the electronic sights on his visor lined up with what he knew he would see.\u00a0 A pull of the trigger, a crack of hypersonic metal flung out the barrel, and a squad of oncoming enemies sailed back through the air before a shockwave of splintering rock.\u00a0 He dropped back down before their comrades could return the favor and looked at the magazine indicator.\u00a0 Five rounds.<\/p>\n
Young struggled to slow his breathing back down and shut his eyes again.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t keep this up.\u00a0 None of them could.\u00a0 They were running too low on ammo and bodies all across the front.\u00a0 And the fraking Chinese still had a tank out there somewhere.\u00a0 He\u2019d heard the telltale sound of its gravplating in the distance as it maneuvered up and down the other side of the front for hours now, every time wondering if it was going to take the time to finally finish off one Private Roger Young.<\/p>\n
He looked up to the explosions in the sky far above.\u00a0 The Chinese had destroyed the defense fleet long ago but now the Americans fought for control of the orbitals.\u00a0 They\u2019d come out of nowhere to slash into the Chinese without warning and he\u2019d cheered as loudly as anybody, but there were a lot of Chinese ships up there and they were not going down easily.\u00a0 A trail of fire from another starship burned down through the atmosphere and Young wondered if it was American or Chinese.\u00a0 Then he shook his head.\u00a0 Pretty soon it wouldn\u2019t matter to him.<\/p>\n
The Chinese would come.\u00a0 Sooner or later, they would have to come.\u00a0 If the Americans won in orbit, the Chinese troops would need the shelter of Landing City to protect them from bombardment.\u00a0 Win or lose up there, the Chinese had crossed twenty-one lightyears of hyperspace to take the Serenity star system and her industries from the Alliance, one way or another.<\/p>\n
And one Roger Young would die when that happened.\u00a0 The Chinese didn\u2019t take prisoners.\u00a0 He fought off another urge to drop his weapon and run.\u00a0 He could hide.\u00a0 He had a day job.\u00a0 They would probably leave him alone if he disavowed any resistance.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 He checked his railgun\u2019s display again.<\/p>\n
Five rounds.<\/p>\n
Young closed his eyes and leaned against the barricade again.\u00a0 He wanted to live.\u00a0 Oh God he wanted to live so bad.\u00a0 He gritted his teeth so hard it hurt and his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest.\u00a0 Five rounds.\u00a0 Just five more rounds.\u00a0 Surely nobody would blame him if he ran then?\u00a0 Even himself?<\/p>\n
Roger Young held onto the railgun and the last ragged shreds of his courage, one word foremost in his mind.\u00a0 Five.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Lie Bing Chu Wang opened his eyes and blinked the blurry stars away.\u00a0 Everything hurt.\u00a0 His rifle lay a meter away where he\u2019d dropped it on the ground, covered in the pulverized dust that had once been the pavement of a major highway leading into Landing City.\u00a0 He groaned, reached out to pick it back up, and rolled onto his feet to see the remnants of the last advance.<\/p>\n
Up and down the front, sporadic weapons fire filled the roadway with violence.\u00a0 Screams and whimpers came to his ears from all sides.\u00a0 The unlucky moaned painfully and long in the open and Chu wondered once again at what could turn other humans so cold towards that suffering.\u00a0 A civilized foe would have ended their misery, but no one ever accused the Alliance of honorable warfare.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d been so close.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d seen victory a hand-grasp away, tanks and artillery smashing through everything Serenity had.\u00a0 He\u2019d marched across the bodies of dead Alliance soldiers and felt vindication.\u00a0 After every attempt the Western Alliance had made to bring the People\u2019s Republic to her knees, he had seen her time come at last.\u00a0 This very morning they\u2019d received word of a great victory against the Alliance, the destruction of their largest fleet.\u00a0 And he\u2019d been part of the final march on Landing City.\u00a0 There was nothing the Alliance could do to stop them.<\/p>\n
Then the thrice-damned Americans had dropped out of the sky with almost no warning and destroyed the Iron Fist\u2019s vanguard.\u00a0 Even now the battle between his fleet and the last of their warships raged in view of the naked eye.\u00a0 A long burning trail marked the path of something falling through the atmosphere on one final death ride.\u00a0 He hoped it was Americans burning in there.\u00a0 It would serve them right.<\/p>\n
Chu took cover behind a dead American tank.\u00a0 He thought it might just have been the last to die, but wasn\u2019t entirely certain.\u00a0 The last desperate moments of the battle were hazy.\u00a0 He still lived though.\u00a0 Now they just had to take Landing City.\u00a0 The defenders were beaten.\u00a0 Their army was vanquished.\u00a0 But the last defenders just kept fighting.\u00a0 He would never understand why they refused to accept an honorable surrender.\u00a0 It was surely better than living in this hell.<\/p>\n
Chu spat and sucked in a lungful of scorched air.\u00a0 There would be no grand march into their capital.\u00a0 It would have to be a mad dash for the city in case the Americans won their orbital engagement.\u00a0 Even those devils wouldn\u2019t fire on one of their own cities.\u00a0 Or would they?\u00a0 After Alpha Centauri he wouldn\u2019t put anything past them.\u00a0 But it would be their only hope if the worst happened up there.<\/p>\n
A dull thrum moved up through the balls of his feet and Chu looked over to see their last tank moving forward.\u00a0 Other surviving soldiers of the Iron Fist moved around the vast machine as it hovered over the wreckage of battle.\u00a0 His communicator crackled to life as the tank gained line of sight and his display flickered on, showing once again the health of his comrades.\u00a0 Zhao, Lum, and Chen still lived.<\/p>\n
Chu Wang smiled.<\/p>\n
The victory would be bitter, but the Alliance would pay.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Staff Sergeant Douglas Washington of the First Infantry Division squirted dust through his teeth as the hoverjeep skimmed over the broken highway far faster than he ever wanted to fly ever again.\u00a0 He held on to his five-point harness with a white-knuckled grip as they whipped by a broken American tank.\u00a0 His face looked far too pasty to his eyes, though he hoped the private didn\u2019t notice.\u00a0 It was never good for the troops to realize their leader was terrified half to death before battle even began.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarefully, Private,\u201d Washington growled as they missed another grounded tank by less than a meter.\u00a0 The Chinese anti-air cannons had been amazingly effective during the battle and nothing dared fly anymore.\u00a0 Thank God the Landing City batteries had been just as effective or they would be dead already.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got it under control, Sarge,\u201d Private Valdez answered with an impish smile as she banked their Joint Light Tactical Vehicle around what looked like the remains of yet another tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the Daytona 500, Private,\u201d Washington barked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course not, Sarge,\u201d Valdez returned and slammed the accelerator back down again.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re turning left and<\/em> right,\u201d she said with a wink and the hoverjeep sprang forward under her deft control, kicking Washington squarely in the back.<\/p>\n He winced and maintained his grip on the roll cage as they shot through the ruins of a Marine landing craft.\u00a0 A Chinese missile had ripped it apart and dropped the remains on either side of the roadway but he couldn\u2019t see any bodies.\u00a0 A churned mound of earth topped by white crosses told him that at least some had survived to bury the dead.\u00a0 He took a moment to wonder where they were now before shaking his head back into the game.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t have time to worry about them.\u00a0 They would link up with someone, somewhere along the front.\u00a0 You could always trust a jarhead to head in the direction of gunfire.<\/p>\n Valdez brought them around another long, sweeping corner designed for civilian ground traffic moving at a hundred kilometers an hour.\u00a0 She had to use thrusters to keep their hoverjeep on the road at the over two<\/em> hundred klicks she drove, and Washington suppressed a grimace as their rear swung out over the grassy ditch.\u00a0 Valdez was crazy.\u00a0 She kept them on the road though and the hoverjeep swung onto the straightaway to begin accelerating again.<\/p>\n Cliffs rose on either side of the roadway in the distance, and the road became something other than the pockmarked ruin he\u2019d seen so far.\u00a0 A five-meter tall line of broken and crumbling pavement and dirt stretched from one cliff to the other.\u00a0 Holes rent it and entire sections had collapsed.\u00a0 Dead tanks, hoverjeeps, and more brown-swathed bodies than he could count lay between the cliffs where they\u2019d fallen.<\/p>\n An entire division of the Landing City Guard had fought and died here.\u00a0 But his visor highlighted a few surviving soldiers still holding the makeshift walls.\u00a0 He shook his head and spat dirt as Valdez drove them between two smashed hoverjeeps.\u00a0 Valdez dropped their speed and drove into the killzone, Washington keeping an eye out for any threats the locals had missed.\u00a0 There was no movement though and he wondered again at just how destructive this little piece of The War had become.<\/p>\n Valdez cut the gravitic hum and the hoverjeep bounced onto its rubber wheels to make its bone-jarring progress across the old ruined highway.\u00a0 Washington winced as the minimal suspension subjected his soldiers to a truly rough landing.\u00a0 People didn\u2019t call these things Jolts for nothing, but he was overjoyed to be back on the ground and more in control of his own fate again.<\/p>\n \u201cUn-ass you apes!\u201d Washington barked, punched the door open, and tumbled out onto the broken pavement as the Jolt came to a rocky stop.\u00a0 Snow, Williams, Valdez, and Walker echoed his motions and came to their feet with all the confidence of soldiers expecting to win.\u00a0 No fear of defeat made its treacherous way into their walk and Washington smiled in approval.\u00a0 \u201cWho\u2019s in charge!\u201d he shouted at the ragtag survivors and stalked towards the makeshift barricade.<\/p>\n None of the dust-covered soldiers answered and Washington spat a curse on the roadway.\u00a0 It turned the ruin a darker brown but did little to quench the worry in his heart.\u00a0 These weekend warriors had no business fighting The War and he wondered how they\u2019d kept it up so long.\u00a0 A quick scan of the survivors showed no officers standing, commissioned or otherwise.\u00a0 The handful of remaining privates had simply held their ground in ones and twos with no one to give them orders.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know if he should congratulate them for their courage or berate them for their stupidity.<\/p>\n He spat again, scanned the soldiers once more, and noticed one of them carrying a railgun.\u00a0 Those took brains to operate.\u00a0 The man\u2019s size registered on second glance and Washington grunted.\u00a0 It took brawn too, and that kid had the look of a football linebacker.\u00a0 American football, not that pansy European shit.\u00a0 He could work with that.\u00a0 He focused on the man and a name appeared in his visor.\u00a0 \u201cCorporal Roger Young!\u201d he shouted at the top of his lungs.<\/p>\n \u201cSir?\u201d the man asked in confusion.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t call me \u2018Sir,\u2019\u201d Washington scolded with his best drill sergeant tone.\u00a0 \u201cI work for a living.\u00a0 Now report!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut\u2026I\u2019m a private, sir,\u201d Young answered, then blanched as he realized his error.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re a Corporal, now\u201d Washington growled.\u00a0 \u201cField promotion.\u00a0 Understood?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, si\u2026.ah\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCall me Sarge!\u201d Washington snapped.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir\u2026arge,\u201d Young said and Washington spat on the ground.\u00a0 Damn civilians had no business in War.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is the status of your troops?\u201d Washington shouted and snapped out orders to his soldiers with hand signals.<\/p>\n \u201cAaaaaaah,\u201d Young replied in shock and looked around for a second.\u00a0 \u201cRight.\u201d\u00a0 Then he breathed deeply and looked back at Washington.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington spat again and watched his soldiers filing up towards the barricade in response to his orders.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a proper report, but he could live with that for now.\u00a0 He looked down to see the ammo count on Young\u2019s railgun and tried to spit again.\u00a0 His mouth was too dry.\u00a0 \u201cWe have spare ammo back there!\u201d Washington growled and pointed towards the Jolt.\u00a0 \u201cUse it!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir\u2026arge,\u201d Young stammered back and began walking towards the hoverjeeps.<\/p>\n Washington just shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cYoung?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cS\u2026sarge?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour men?\u201d<\/p>\n Young\u2019s eyes visibly widened at the realization and he gulped.\u00a0 But he was quick.\u00a0 Washington would give the kid that.\u00a0 \u201cFifth Division!\u201d Young shouted.\u00a0 \u201cGet back here and rearm.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington suppressed a sigh.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a proper order, but he doubted any of these kids would have known a proper order if it was given.\u00a0 He did scowl as he realized none of them were actually moving.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you maggots have a problem following orders?\u201d he barked at them.\u00a0 The soldiers shook their heads in confusion and Washington grumped.\u00a0 \u201cDo you need me to explain how this works to your fraking faces<\/em>?\u201d he finished at full bellow.<\/p>\n They shuddered into motion and backed away from the barricades before beginning to move towards the Jolt.\u00a0 Washington spat on the pavement and turned away from them.\u00a0 He doubted they would be worth his time much longer.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks, Sarge,\u201d Young said in relief.<\/p>\n Washington sighed, wondering if he\u2019d picked the right kid.\u00a0 He looked over at Young with one eye.\u00a0 \u201cSon, if you don\u2019t want this then just say so.\u00a0 But if you do, you need to earn it in the next few minutes.\u00a0 Understood?\u201d<\/p>\n Young gulped but nodded very slowly.\u00a0 \u201cYes, Sarge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 Washington jerked a thumb towards the Jolt.\u00a0 \u201cNow get back there, load up, and have a serious powwow with your troops.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen what?\u201d<\/p>\n Washington aimed a mirthless grin at Young.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve got five bodies here, and a whole mess of fraking Tangos out there.\u00a0 There will<\/em> be leakers.\u201d\u00a0 He poked Young in the chest.\u00a0 \u201cPlug those leakers.\u00a0 Understood?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstood, Sarge,\u201d Young replied and turned to jog back towards the Jolt and the soldiers that would soon be his\u2026or maybe not if he wasn\u2019t up to it.<\/p>\n Washington spat again and watched his soldiers taking over the barricade.\u00a0 It was going to be hard but they were his people.\u00a0 They made it the best job he\u2019d ever had.\u00a0 Not that he would say it out loud.\u00a0 A whine of gravplating interrupted what he was<\/em> going to say and he frowned at the sound.\u00a0 If his ears weren\u2019t lying to him the tank was moving away.<\/p>\n \u201cWalker!\u00a0 \u201d Washington shouted and saw the man\u2019s suit of powered armor turn to look at him.\u00a0 \u201cEyes on that tank!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRoger, Sarge,\u201d Walker responded and began crawling up the barricade.<\/p>\n Washington flicked his rifle\u2019s safety off with a flourish learned from long years of making it look casual for the benefit of nervous privates.\u00a0 The rifle\u2019s electronic systems hummed to life and status reports begin to scroll down the side of his visor.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s action to the north!\u201d Walker transmitted and Washington\u2019s visor flashed once before showing him Walker\u2019s view.\u00a0 The explosions on the other side of the next ridgeline told a tale he liked.\u00a0 There was an American tank out in the badlands beating the hell out of the Chinese flank.<\/p>\n Washington smiled, blinked the visor back to his natural view, and felt the first glimmerings of hope again.\u00a0 \u201cWeapons hot!\u201d he ordered and strode towards the barricade as if he didn\u2019t have a care in the world.\u00a0 A new plan hit his forebrain and Washington began to chuckle.<\/p>\n It was time to kick some Chinese ass while the kicking was good.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Forge of Wars: Tactics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m taking a quick break from Angel Strike to show another view of the Battle of Serenity.\u00a0 This story takes place in the middle of the battle, while Jack and his Cowboys are fighting on land and in space.\u00a0 It[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2307-forge-of-wars","uentry","postonpage-1","odd","post-author-medron-pryde"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3778,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions\/3778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}